The Imact of Captive Facilities in Provision of Conservation Education: A Case ot the Nairobi Safari Walk, Nairobi, Kenya.

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Abstract

Present captive wildlife facilities embrace four .important justifications and objectives for
keeping wild animals in captivity: recreation, conservation, education and research.
Although critics of captive animal displays agree that captive wildlife facilities add to
conservation education they point out that little research has been undertaken to ascertain
impact or effectiveness of conservation education within such facilities. Captive wildlife
facilities are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between people and the natural world
through the creation of learning experiences that raise awareness of environmental threats
and biodiversity loss. This study assessed the impact of Nairobi Safari Walk (NSW) in
providing conservation education to tourists. The study further sought to determine the
adequacy of the channels used to convey conservation messages, tourists' perceived roles
of the facility, the extent to which tourists exited the facility with its key conservation
messages and challenges faced in the provision of conservation education. Methodology
for data collection involved a case study survey. Structured questionnaires were used to
collect data from visiting tourists and NSW staff while semi structured interviews were
directed at the KWS top management. A focal sampling method was used to obtain a
sample of 365 adult tourists based on the 2005-2009 visitation data, 95% confidence level
and 5% margin of error. Chi-squared Test and Pearson correlation were used to find
relationships between variables. Results showed that an average of 70% of respondents
reported having received the key conservation messages thus indicating success of NSW
in communicating its key conservation messages. The extent to which visitors left the
NSW with key conservation messages depended on visitors' personal goals. Positive
correlation existed between learning and discovery goal and the NSW Actions message
(r365=0.20, p<O.Ol level). Significant relationship between respondents number of
previous visits to NSW and the extent of exiting with key conservation messages was
only found on the "Human Actions" message which had a Chi-squared value of i=8.222,
p>0.05. This implies that the number of previous visits to NSW have no impact on the
extent of visitors exiting with its key conservation messages. Wild animals and message
boards were the most effective conveyors of conservation messages to over 40% of the
respondents in NSW. This suggests that NSW is more dependent on passive channels
than interactive ones contrary to recommendations by other studies. Majority of visitors
perceived conservation education and recreation as the most important roles of NSW.
The study also identified that there are a number of challenges that negatively impact
NSW's ability to effectively provide conservation education to tourists. They range from
budgetary constraints, shortage of trained staff dedicated to conservation education,
overemphasis on revenue generation and lack of an educational program and evaluation
mechanism. This study recommends that more resources directed at provision of
conservation education be provided to NSW, more interactive channels should be
employed in conveying conservation messages and a conservation education policy
should be enacted to guide the process. This is envisaged to lead to enhanced
. conservation message communication and learning thereby enhancing the facility's
effectiveness in meeting its conservation education goal.